The History of the Province of New-York, Volume 1: From the First Discovery to the Year 1732

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William Smith, Jr., (1728–1793)—politician, jurist, historian, and Loyalist—produced an admirable history of colonial New York that remains to this day one of the best records of early America written by a colonist. He published the first volume, covering the period 1610–1732, in 1757, and wrote the second (1732–1762) while a neutralist bystander during the Revolutionary War. Thus his History serves as an elegant testimony to the Americans’ growing self-consciousness and search for identity on the eve of the Revolution. As editor of the first accurate and complete version of this important work, Michael Kammen has prepared a fresh first volume based upon the original edition, plus Smith’s rich marginalia in his personal copy, and a second volume based upon the original manuscript. Included in this generously illustrated work is an extensive three-part introductory essay by the editor and four appendixes.